It Could Happen to You

by J.J. Lewsac

Last week, my wife and I were driving home from a local restaurant where we had dined. When we turned onto our street, we were surprised to see a police car in front of our neighbors home. We live in a remote area, and it is a pretty rare occurrence to see uniformed officers around our neighborhood. In addition, the home that the squad car was in front of belonged to some friends of ours, who for the sake of the blog we shall call “The Smiths”. As we approached the home a small crowd had gathered, made up of many of our other neighbors, and some curious teenagers. Naturally we were concerned about the well being of our friends.

My wife hopped out of our car. She spotted another friend in the crowd and approached her, hoping to get some insight into what was going on. Her friend explained that “The Smiths” home had been robbed while they were both at work that day. They had come home to discover that all their TV’s, Stereo’s, MP3 players, and video game systems had all been stolen.  The burglar had used a screwdriver to force their way in through the sliding glass door in the back yard.  Gradually the crowd dispersed as it became apparent the Smiths were in no mood to come out of their home and talk about what had happened.  As we headed towards our home, I overheard another neighbor comment to her husband saying “I didn’t think something like that would happen all the way out here”.  As I thought about the comment I realized that I too probably felt the same way. Our community is far enough away from the rest of the city that it wouldn’t seem practical to come all the way out there to break in and steal some electronics. I then started to think that perhaps the thief was a little closer to home, and not from the city.  If that indeed was the case, then this probably is not the last time something like this will happen in our community.

That following Sunday we were able to chat for a few minutes with our friends at church about what had happened. “The Smiths” talked about how difficult it had been to sleep since the incident. Every little noise, or car door closing at night has them jumping out of bed. They talked about how violated and vulnerable they felt now. They woke up that day like any other day, only to come home and find their most used possessions had been taken from them. They mentioned that the police didnt sound confident that they would catch whomever was responsible unless someone came forward with information.  They talked about how frustrated they were that the break-in happened in broad daylight, and yet no one saw anything that could help the investigation.  I mentioned that I work in the surveillance camera industry, and they replied that they never thought they would need something like that out where we live, common sentiments apparently shared by many out in our neighborhood. Perhaps this will open some eyes, as it did mine. Never assume your home is safe and won’t be broken into, simply because you live in a nice, or distant neighborhood. You just never really know. After all, it could happen to you.